Cultural Differences Between The Cherokee And Native Americans

The law was passed that all Natives had to leave. Cherokees believed even if they stayed they would still have to deal with all the troublesome White neighbors, therefore their best option was to leave. There was nothing they could do because the whites were too powerful as said in doc 5. “It is argued that they can never remain quiet where they are;n that they will always be infested by troublesome whites; and that the states, which lay claim their territory, will always preserve in measures to vex and annoy them.” The Natives didn’t understand why the white people wanted them gone so bad, because the white people tried so hard to change the Natives culture to make them act like the white people. The Natives changed they way they acted, worked, and how they looked. In doc 7 it says “ The Cherokees have been reclaimed from their wild habits. Instead of hunters, they have become the cultivators of the soil instead of wild and ferocious savages, thirsting for blood, they become the mild “citizens.” The Cherokees were really upset, because not only were they leaving what had now become their norm they were also leaving their land which had been passed down through their family. The Cherokees started a petition to the United States asking for them to fulfill their treaty they had made. In doc 9. It says “ Cherokee people used no violence but humbly petitioned the Government of the United States for a fulfillment of treaty

So when the British government had lost the Revolutionary war, by "right of conquest" the United States won all of England's authority, which included rule over all of the people and land in the Americas. By this reasoning, this rule extended to the Indians that were in fact living on their land. But rather then defend (by another fight) the "right of conquest" against the Indians, Congress wanted to conduct peaceful negotiations with them instead. This brought about the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785 which historically was the very first treaty between the United States and the Cherokee people. The treaty was in fact to promote friendliness and good relations between the U.S. Government and the tribes. The reason also for the treaty was to protect the Cherokee from the intruding states of North Carolina and Georgia. However the treaty was a failure because both North Carolina and Georgia would not support it.

The Cherokee people were forced out of their land because of the settler’s greed for everything and anything the land had to offer. Many Cherokee even embraced the “civilization program,” abandoning their own beliefs so that they may be accepted by white settlers. Unfortunately for the Cherokee though, the settlers would never accept them as an equal citizen. A quote from historian Richard White says it very well, “The Cherokee are probably the most tragic instance of what could have succeeded in American Indian policy and didn’t. All these things that Americans would proudly see as the hallmarks of civilization are going to the West by Indian people. They do everything they were asked except one thing. What the Cherokees ultimately

They were declared a dependent sovereign state and only the federal government had any say so in their affairs. Treaties were signed and land was sacrificed in order to retain some semblance of independence but the states got greedy and wanted it all. It was the Indians who followed the treaties and never went after their lost land or left their borders but the Americans continued to encroach on them. The Memorial Of the Cherokee Nation explained how Indians were tricked into selling land that belonged to the Nation so that Indian territory became American territory despite the people having no right to sell land given to the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee government fought the breaks in the treaties but the judicial decision was overruled and the Cherokees were still forced to move. Besides the breaches in the treaties, the Cherokee tribe was one of the five assimilated tribes meaning they adopted European customs and religions. The Cherokee had become civilized as was the European’s goal and they fought their battle through the legal system not in a war. In this sense, the Indian Removal was unjust and

" These lands were taken away barely 50 years after they were assessed. The United States government played a cruel game when it relocated its Indian population (some could argue this as survival of the fittest, evolution). They turned a blind and mostly bias eye when it came to Indian politics and treaties they had made twenty years prior. They made promised that were going to be broken, and which there were no way of avoiding. In short, the government in a way did the same thing to the Indians that Jackson did to the Bank:

The Cherokee are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Although they were not considered states at this time, they would have been in present day Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. However, in 1938 the Cherokees found an abundant amount of gold which left the United States in a scramble. Thus, President Johnson signed the removal act, which forced the Cherokees East of the Mississippi into the Great Plains and then went into dig up gold. The Cherokees thrived in the Great Plains, becoming farmers and excellent hunters. They settled along the Arkansas River, becoming fisherman. Just as it happened in 1938 the Cherokees were eventually forced off their lands and into the Oregon Territory. This trail they walked along was called the trail of tears, many Cherokees died because of food deprivation or various diseases. Today, this Trail of Tears is seen as the worst displays of discrimination in the history of the United States. Thus, we gave the Cherokees Reservations to live on in the Western United States. This journey they faced is arguably the hardest journey any tribe has ever faced and the way the Cherokees overcame this and turned their tribe into what it is today is what makes it special.

Since international law said that England had discovered the American colonies, they therefore owned all of the land. That meant that the natives or "uncivilized" people no longer owned the land. This group of the "uncivilized" consisted of many Indian tribes which were forced out of their homeland, including the Cherokee.

In 1831, the Cherokee nation went to court against the state of Georgia. They were disputing the state’s attempt to hold jurisdiction over their territory. Unfortunately, because they are not under the laws of the constitution, the Indian’s right to court was denied. It was not until 1835 that the Cherokee finally agreed to sign the treaty, giving up their Georgia land for that of Oklahoma.

In Document K, the Cherokee said, “We wish to remain on the land of our fathers. We have a perfect and original right to remain without interruption or molestation… and “Our consciences bear us witness that we are the invaders of no man’s rights- we have robbed no man of his territory- we have usurped no man’s authority, nor have we deprived any one of his unalienable privileges. How then

White settlers from the U.S. threatened to take cherokee land with the passing of the Indian Removal Act. The Cherokee either had to relocate to the west or stay and face their consequences from the U.S. Many Cherokee wanted to stay because they have owned that land for thousands of years and the treaties the U.S. made with them along with the Supreme Court ruling made it seem that the Cherokee did own the land, but the U.S. still wanted to take it from them for their own use. What path offered the best survival for the cherokee in the early 1800’s: staying in their territory or removal to the west? People might disagree because there may be an argument between who actually owned the land and that if it was legal for the U.S. to just take

Have you ever thought about what happened to the Cherokees after the Indian removal act in 1830? Well, the Indian removal act of 1830 is the act that was signed by sir Andrew Jackson, allowing the president to exchange the aimless lands of Indians. Some of the tribes did not want to leave their rightful place, and some left with no problem. Although some of the Indians did horrible things to the innocent Americans, they should be allowed to stay because they fought by our side during some of the U.S wars. They lived there for hundreds of years.

In America, the Cherokee had lived in Southern Appalachia for hundreds, possibly thousands of years. Upon European settlement and eventual American Westward Expansion, the Cherokee began to lose their land and way of life. The 1835 census of the Cherokee People reveals that the Cherokee society prior to removal had a distinct culture but was forced into assimilation in hopes to remain on their land. Through American assimilation, the Cherokee sought to prove themselves as worthy republican citizens. To do so, the Cherokee adopted the English language, new ways of naming themselves, and a new patriarchal job system.

More Reasons why the Cherokee should leave their land because if they leave they wouldn't have to try to copy the white settlers and they can start

There has always been a big debate on whether the Cherokee Indians should have or should not have been removed from the land they resided on. Although the common consensus of the whites was for removal, and for the Cherokees it was against removal, there were some individuals on each side that disagreed with their groups’ decision. The Cherokee Indians should have been removed from their homeland because the Cherokees would not have been able to survive on their own with the way they were living, they would not have been able to exist amidst a white population, and if they were removed, the whites would have helped them create a new and prosperous civilization.

Most of us have learnt about the Trail of Tears as an event in American history, but not many of us have ever explored why the removal of the Indians to the West was more than an issue of mere land ownership. Here, the meaning and importance of land to the original Cherokee Nation of the Southeastern United States is investigated. American land was seen as a way for white settlers to profit, but the Cherokee held the land within their hearts. Their removal meant much more to them than just the loss of a material world. Historical events, documentations by the Cherokee, and maps showing the loss of Cherokee land work together to give a true Cherokee